Led Zeppelin-In Through The Out Door (1979)

“In the Evening………….”

How could anybody at the time know that “In the Evening…..” would signal the end of the recording career of Led Zeppelin with the loss of John Bonham less than one month after the release of In Through The Out Door. Perhaps one of the lesser talked about albums in their career but it’s still one of my favourites. For me, the magic of Led Zeppelin has not always been about their ferocity, where lots abound, but rather their willingness to be totally open to the creative process. The band eager to allow new instrumentation and fresh ideas into rock arrangements confounding pundits and critics from one album to the next. Clearly demonstrated in the stark contrast between Led Zeppelin II and III. They followed one of the heaviest blues based rock albums with one with a number of acoustic masterpieces.

The songs on In Through The Out Door are not all Jimmy Page guitar drivin, instead keyboardist John Paul Jones takes center stage giving tracks like Carouselambra and In the Evening a maturity and sense of adventure that still resonates to this day. The two or three different sections of Carouselambra just bristle with what sounds like the pure joy of making music together, creating a “thing” that wasn’t there before.

Any discussion of this album can’t go without inclusion of All My Love. A song written about the tragic loss of Robert Plant’s 5 year old son Karac. Truly one of Plants more powerful vocal performances, which I understand was a “one taker”, dealing with subject matter that no parent should have to go through. The featured single, Fool In The Rain, charted at 21 on the Bilboard Hot 100. It still gets played often on the radio making us react the same way as when the Godfather comes on TV. You may own a copy but you still have to watch it. Who doesn’t air drum to the fills after the middle section? Yes you do! We know that Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro (RIP) loved Fool In The Rain, he combined the John Bonham half time shuffle from this song with the killer Bernard Purdie beat creating the rhythm for Totos smash hit Roseanna.

The unique concept of several different sleeves and cover art packaged in a brown paper bag was conceived by Storm Thorgerson, the same individual that designed all the great Pink Floyd album art. It was nominated for a Grammy in 1980 for album packaging but was outdone by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band for Against The Wind.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this record, given the circumstances, is that we will never know what door this album would have opened next.